The new coronavirus that's sickened tens of thousands of people in Asia is not a pandemic, but has the potential to become one if countries don't work together to slow its spread, the World Health Organization said Monday.
Concern about possible widespread global infection has increased in recent days, as cases have risen significantly in countries other than China, including Iran, Italy and South Korea.
"Does this virus have unlimited potential? Absolutely," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing. "Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet."
The WHO's decision about whether to call the outbreak a pandemic is based on an ongoing assessment of the geographical spread of the virus and the impact it has on a country's "whole society."
"For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus," Tedros said.
The WHO said that if countries can throw a collective cog in the coronavirus wheel, it can help delay burdens placed on health care systems currently spread thin by flu season.
“Even slowing down the virus by a month or six weeks has massive positive benefits on the system,” Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said during the press briefing Monday.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
A WHO-led group of scientists has wrapped up a trip to the center of the outbreak — Wuhan, China — and is scheduled to offer a full report Tuesday.
But Tedros provided a few early details. Inside of Wuhan, the fatality rate is between 2 percent and 4 percent. But elsewhere so far, it’s much lower, at 0.7 percent.
About 80 percent of cases are said to be mild. Those patients generally feel better within about two weeks, Tedros said.
But more severe cases can take up to six weeks for recovery. The elderly and people with compromised immune systems have been most vulnerable to serious health effects.
One other finding: the epidemic in China appears to have peaked sometime between Jan. 23 and Feb. 2, before declining steadily. More than 77,000 people in China have fallen ill with COVID-19, the illness that's caused by the coronavirus. And more than 2,600 people have died there.
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